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Silent e
Silent e or silent final e is a spelling pattern in English that has 5 uses that can be exemplified with lake (a as /eɪ/), office (c as /s/), love (words don't end in v), handle (at least one vowel per syllable), and goose (to mark the word as a singular noun).All About Learning Press, How to Teach Silent E. They list 4 uses, and then "keeps a singular word from ending in s". Magic e See main article Magic e Make c and g soft At the end of a word "c" sounds /k/ and "g" sounds /g/. A silent e makes "c" sound /s/ and "g" sound /dʒ/. *"ce": choice - experience - lettuce - office - once - police - service - since :Combined silent e and magic e: advice - face - price - place :Silent e and magic e with two consonants: scarce *"ge": charge - knowledge - language - large - manage - vegetable :Combined silent e and magic e: age - page - stage :Silent e and magic e with two consonants: change - range - strange Keep u and v from being the last letter in a word There are very few English words that end in "u" or "v". Most (if not all) words that end in /v/ are spelled with "ve". Many words that end in /uː/ are spelled with "ue". */v/: above - believe - curve - give - have - improve - involve - leave - live /lɪv/ - love - move - naive - receive - serve :Magic e: arrive - brave - drive - live /laɪv/ - save - shave - wave */uː/:argue - blue - continue - due - issue - pursue - rescue - revenue - tissue - true - value Exceptions: */v/: mazeltov - of - perv - rev *"u": emu - flu - gnu - guru - haiku - Hindu - menu - Peru - snafu - tofu - you Keep a syllable from having no vowels *article - couple - example - handle - little - middle - people - simple - single - trouble :Magic e with two consonants: able - acre - bible - cable - cradle - fable - idle - maple - noble - stable - table - title *all words with suffixes "able" and "ible": available, possible *UK spelling: centre - litre - theatre :Magic e with two consonants: fibre - metre Exceptions. The following examples have a syllable with no vowel letters: *rhythm *some contractions: couldn't - doesn't - hasn't - isn't - shouldn't - wouldn't * all words ending in "sm": enthusiasm - mechanism ;See also IPA phonetic symbol [l̩] Keep a singular word from ending in s *Words that follow this rule :*ending in /s/: goose - house - mouse - promise /ˈprɒmɪs/ - purchase - purpose - release ::magic e: abuse - case - excuse - use :*ending in /z/: cause - cheese - disease - noise - pause ::magic e: nose - phase - phrase - rose - surprise *Words that don't follow this rule: alias - bonus - bus - canvas - chaos - Christmas - focus - gas - genius - plus - status - tennis - versus - virus See also: Advanced decoding exercises: /s/ vs /z/ Other function or no function In these words, the silent e does not affect the pronunciation. Most of these have short vowels instead of long. *are - determine - discipline - famine - gone - imagine - medicine *breeze - freeze - maize - sneeze *catalogue - cheque - colleague - dialogue - giraffe - league - programme - tongue Silent e changes the vowel, but it doesn't make it long. *come - corporate - done - private - some Silent e makes the vowel long but it isn't a magic e because it doesn't make the vowel say its name. *antique - gasoline - machine - magazine - submarine - technique - vaseline - unique Misleading final e In this section we show words in which the pattern single letter vowel + single consonant letter or digraph + letter e (VCe) does not make the vowel say its name. "a" doesn't sound /eɪ/ nor /eə/ */æ/: have */ɑː/: are */ə/: climate - corporate - estimate (n.) - purchase - private - separate (adj.) */ɪ/: surface *ending in "age" as /ɪdʒ/: advantage - average - coverage - damage - encourage - garbage - image - manage - message - mortgage - package - passage - percentage - storage - village "e" doesn't sound /iː/ nor /ɪə/ */ /: allege */ɪ/: college, privilege, sacrilege */eə/: there, where */ɜː/: were "i" doesn't sound /aɪ/ */ɪ/: determine - discipline - engine - examine - favourite - imagine - justice - medicine - notice - office - opposite - practice - premise - promise - service *ending in "ive" as /ɪv/: active - alternative - competitive - conservative - effective - expensive - executive - give - initiative - live (verb) - native - negative - objective - perspective - positive - relative - representative */iː/:machine - magazine - police "o" doesn't sound /əʊ/ */ʌ/: above - become - come - income - love - none - one - some */ɒ/ or /ɔː/ : gone */uː/: approve - improve - lose - move - prove - remove - whose */ə/: purpose - welcome "u" doesn't sound /uː/ nor /juː/ */ɪ/: lettuce - minute (60 seconds) ;Pronounced final e As this page shows, normally final e is silent. However there are words in which it has a sound. *as /iː/ or /ɪ/: apostrophe - catastrophe - Chile - coyote - karate - machete - recipe - sesame Magic e in the middle of the word Magic e is defined at the end of the word. In the middle of the word it works in the following cases: ;Suffixes *like + -ed = liked; wide + -er = wider; wide + -est = widest; hope + -ful = hopeful; care + -less = careless; like + -ly = likely; state + -ment = statement; face + -s = faces; ;Compound words *note + pad = notepad; sale + s + person = salesperson; time + table = timetable ;Exceptions Some compound words don't have a magic e. Some words look compound but they are not. *dromedary /ˈdrɒmədəri/ is not drome + dary in English (it comes from Greek and Latin) *pomegranate /ˈpɒmɪɡrænɪt/ is not pome + granate in English (it comes from Old French) *sovereign /ˈsɒvrɪn/ is not sove + reign in English (it comes from soverain in Old French) *vine + yard = vineyard /ˈvɪnjərd/ References See also *Decoding the letter E *Silent letter External links ezzsilent Category:Spelling